


Ready

by RubyRollup



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-09
Updated: 2016-07-09
Packaged: 2018-07-22 12:59:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7440229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyRollup/pseuds/RubyRollup





	Ready

Caroline pulled up at the gates of the cemetery. Switching off the engine, she gave herself a once over in her rear-view mirror before grabbing the bouquet on the passenger seat. Walking to her mother’s tombstone, Caroline braced herself for the stab of pain she felt every time she thought of her mother. She’d tried to move on, tried to live her life as Liz would have wanted – there was nothing more to keep here in Mystic Falls.

_Are you sure about that? Why are you back then?_

“I’m just here to visit my mom, so shut up, okay,” she said out loud, trying to silence the irritating voice in her head.

“Hi Mommy,” she murmured as she knelt, laying her pink roses next to the yellow ones already resting on the tombstone.

“Sorry I haven’t been to visit in a while.” The words came surprisingly easily. “I know it’s the natural law for the parent to leave the child at some point, but I wasn’t ready to live without you yet. You would’ve been ashamed of how I handled my grief. And even though I miss you so badly and would give just about _anything_ to even hear you scold me again, I’m glad that you were spared having to witness that.”

Tears trickled over her cheeks, but for the first time in a long while, they weren’t accompanied by sobs or screams.

“And I see you _have_ had visitors,” she said, wiping her tears and looking at the yellow roses. “At least I’m not the only one who thinks of you, and remembers what you did for us all.”

“No, you’re not. I make sure to keep her up to speed with things.”

Blood drained from her face the second she heard a voice she spent five years trying (unsuccessfully) to forget. He sounded exactly as she remembered, and as she turned to face him, his last words to her echoed in her mind…

_“Yesterday, you told me you made a list of all the ways that loving me has ruined your life, and I get it. I haven’t made it easy on you. But I made a list, too, of all the ways that loving you has changed mine. You were by my side when I needed a friend. You made me laugh, you made me dance. You told me that I would find love again. And I understand if you need time to heal and to live your life without me, and I understand if I have to wait for you, and I will._

_I’ll wait, and when you’re ready for me, I will be ready for you.”_

 


End file.
